


The Parent Trap

by imgilmoregirl



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Family, Movie AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-03-05 05:57:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13381602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imgilmoregirl/pseuds/imgilmoregirl
Summary: Long ago, Belle French and Adam Gold met in a cruise and got married, but too soon they parted ways, however, years later two boys cross paths in a camp and discover that the missing pieces of their stories must be found in the other's.Winner of Best Movie AU in the R.H.E.A!





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Moonlight91](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonlight91/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon A Time or any of the characters and storylines in the show. This is just a fanwork made for fun. Also I don't own the movie The Parent Trap.  
> Here am I with another family AU, because they are my weakness! It took me really long to get everything sorted out with this fic, but it is finally here with an added prologue, because I felt the need of writing one. Also, this fic is not being beta-ed, so you can expect some mistakes, but I'l do my best for it to sound as good as possible.  
> Hope it is enjoyable.

So, here is the thing about love: you always think you're giving way too much and receiving way too less. It is a great challenge to learn how accept, that what we get from growing up beside the person that holds our hearts it's enough, even when we are facing the bad moments. Belle French and Adam Gold learned this lesson in the most unexpected way, when fate united two boys, uncovering a lie told too many years ago and reliving an epic love story.

* * *

 

They had met at a cruise, about twelve years earlier. She was a dreamer and he was a sceptic. She was an Australian living in England, he was a Scottish living in America. They had an inappropriate sense of humour, appreciated a good wine and were all up to spontaneity. So, that's how they ended up getting married less than a week before meeting each other, pretty sure that what had hit them at the other's presence, was something that only happened once in a lifetime.

Belle moved to Maine, where Gold had a huge vineyard away from town. He was a lawyer with a great fortune that only left the comfort of his beloved home to meet some clients or go to court when it needed was, but usually he preferred to have meetings at the office he had built for himself in the vineyard, where he also dealt for everything they produced there. His new wife, otherwise, had a degree in Literature and although she had taught some classes, her real dream was to become a famous author and one of the things she most appreciate his home, was how much the beautiful view inspired her to build long paragraphs.

Life with Adam was unexpected and amazing. They would have tea together every morning, spend their afternoons doing their own work, them take a walk side by side before dinner. Sometimes, during the weekends Gold would trade his usual three-piece suits for jeans and a plaid shirt and they would take the horses for a ride, then maybe have a picnic. Things seemed perfect, their marriage was a pure bliss and none of them could have imagined they part ways too soon.

However, it didn’t take much time after they settled themselves into a routine, for things to change again. It all began in the night after Belle came back from the grocery store with a package full of pregnancy tests in hand and all of them turned out to be positive, for their surprise. They were still getting used to life together and they weren’t really planning to have children this soon, but it wasn’t unwelcoming news either, they were both very happy with the prospect of being parents, although also very scared and feeling unprepared, but as the months passed they grew more secure they could deal with that.

Bailey was the first boy to be born, then came Gideon. They were the joy of the vineyard and both Adam and Belle loved them very much.

But it seemed inevitable for the first arguments to start. She was tired. He was tired. The babies were crying. It was a lot to handle and when they realised, Belle was spending more time weeping against a pillow, than writing like she so loved to do, just as well as Adam wasted his days in his office, instead of being with the wife he adored before. Bae and Gid were the only reasons for them to smile again and when all of them were playing together and the children were giggling, things were fine, but then the moment ended and suddenly, it wasn’t anymore.

It was in a hell of a raining day, that Belle threw a hair dryer into Adam’s direction with an angry grunt after he said something about her collection of high heels stealing his space in the closet. It was very silly, really, but they were already too much damaged and she felt like she couldn’t take any of this for another day. So, Belle turned her back to him and started packing her things, saying she would fly back to London, where she still kept an apartment and make a life there with her sons.

Then it came the second big argument, because of course, he wouldn’t let her take his children away from him. He loved them very much – and much as his pride wouldn’t let him admit at that time, he loved her too –, he couldn’t live without those two little bundles of joy, that brought him such happiness.

Now, if you ask them, neither Belle, nor Gold would be able to say whose idea was this, but they ended-up making a deal. Each one of them would keep one child, and raise it by its own, so they would never have to look at each other again. Adam took Bae, because he was more used to their housekeeper, Helga Potts, and Belle, stayed with Gideon who was super attached to her.

In that night, a taxi came. She filled it with all of her bags and said goodbye to the son she would probably never see again, with a lump on her throat, crying all the time, but she couldn’t be there anymore; not when she was feeling so hurt. But it didn’t mean it also wasn’t killing her to leave.

Of course, she did it anyway, because Belle was as stubborn as Adam was and neither of them was willing to deal with their problems in the moment. So, she didn’t at his face, not even once, as she asked Helga for the tenth time to take good care of her beloved Bae.

Then, holding Gideon in one arm and an umbrella in her free hand, Belle entered the taxi and disappeared in the middle on the rain, leaving the vineyard and half of her heart in there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I'm so sorry if there is anything wrong with my writing, English is not my first language.


	2. Mirrored Faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bae and Gideon met and exchange places.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are again. I had lots of fun writing this chapter and I would like to say I'm only pairing Gold and Zelena, because I don't think Cora would work here and I have already written a few stories in which he has a past with her, so I didn't want to repite any plot.  
> I hope it is enjoyable!

The Enchanted Forest camp in California offered one of the best experiences of your life; or at least that was what its website guaranteed. Isabelle French, author of the bestselling novels A Week In The Cruise and The Bride In Gold, had researched everywhere to guarantee her son would have the amazing summer she had promised him ever since he started begging to go to one of these places he saw at the television. Gideon was eleven, which meant adventure was everything for him, and for a while, he relished in exploring the British parks with his grandfather Moe, but it Belle knew at some point he would grow tired of it and, eventually that moment came.

He was very alike her, the authoress always thought, ready for anything, a bit ruthless and always curious, so when she read the weekly planning of activities of the camp and felt excited herself, she was pretty sure he would like it. Gideon then, went to America alongside with their butler, Maxwell Dove, who would make sure he reached the camp safely.

It was the very first time the boy went elsewhere alone, his mother was always with him, wherever he went, making sure he was alright, well-fed, warm and safe from the constant rains of their city. He knew she loved him very much, but he was more than ready for a little adventure.

Meanwhile, in a certain vineyard, the reputed attorney Adam Gold had pretty much the same idea, Belle did and was sending his son, Bailey to The Enchanted Forest, although for very different reasons. He had been engaged with the bubbly and beautiful Zelena Mills, a young journalist who worked for a rather popular magazine and had visited his property in order to write an article about the new types of wine he had been selling. It wasn’t love at first sight or anything else, actually Gold didn’t really know if he loved her, but Zelena made him laugh and appeared to like him very much, which most people didn’t.

Helga, his housekeeper, wasn’t much of an encourager of their relationship, which made him feel twice unsure of telling Bae about the engagement. He hadn’t even introduced them yet, so it would be quite a shock for his boy and he didn’t want Bailey to feel bad with it.

Zelena had suggested he sent Bae to camp, where he could have some fun and be more acceptable when he came back home, so they could tell him about their marriage and start preparing things for the ceremony. Adam talked to the boy about the idea in the very next day, which got him very excited and both found this camp together on the internet. Of course, Bailey had no idea what waited for him when he arrived home, but for now, he was only focused on the many cool activities he should be able to do in the camp.

So, in the Sunday morning, when lots of cars parked in front of the big gates, two boys with equal faces and different hairs slipped out off very distinct cars. Gideon French came out of a limo, holding a big blue bag and pulling on his yellow backpack before he quickly waved a goodbye at Maxwell Dove and ran to the camp. A little bit further away, Bailey Gold jumped off of Helga Potts’ truck, hearing her last advices before finally grabbing his things and entering the gates.

They didn’t quite see each other in the first day, if they got a glimpse of the back of the other’s head, would be much to tell, but it was during breakfast, when Bailey accidentally dropped his oatmeal in Gideon’s brand-new t-shirt that they actually got a look on each other’s face, the small confusion already settling on their childish minds.

It had been an unfortune that Bae and his friend Gus were late for breakfast and hadn't being paying much attention as they made their way to the table where their cabin colleagues were waiting for them. Or maybe, that was fate. But all that matters is the Gold boy stumbled with the French one, spilling all of his oatmeal on his clothes. Gideon, who had been distractedly talking with a tiny boy named Roderick, looked up at him with angry eyes, for just a quick second before his jaw fell open in surprise, because he was seeing his own face mirrored in that boy's.

Their resemblance was undeniable, same brown eyes, same nose, defined lips and chin. All that differed them was their hairstyles, because Bailey had it grown to his shoulders, the waves framing his face from all angles, while Gideon had his cut and very low. They both narrowed eyes to each other, not quite knowing what to say, until the anger came back to fill Gideon.

"Watch where you're going!"

"Whoa," Roderick murmured, tapping a hand to his friend's shoulder. "He is just like you, Gideon!"

"Weird," Gus contemplated.

"Bizarre," Bae exclaimed.

Exchanging a puzzled glance with Roderick, who could only shrug, before fixing his eyes on Bae again, Gideon stepped forward.

"Who are you?"

"Bailey Gold," the other boy said. "Leader of the Flying Cats!"

Roderick chuckled. "Cats don't fly."

Not that any of the names of that camp’s cabins made any sense, as they were the Angry Weasels, but none of boys were really paying attention to what Roderick said at the moment, in actual fact, they were very much concentrated in staring at the other with furious and confused eyes.

"And who are you?" Bailey dared to ask.

"Gideon French. Now, come on, Roderick let's get ready to the kayak competition."

Watching as they left the breakfast area, Bailey stroked his own chin unsure of how it could be possible that someone so alike him existed out there, and why he had to be a jerk.

"Don't you think this is weird, Bae?" Gus questioned. "You two look exactly the same."

"Yeah,” Bailey agreed. “But I'm nicer than him."

* * *

 

Among the next few days, Gideon French and Bailey Gold got themselves into many, many arguments whenever they ran on the other at the camp. The kayak competition was a fail, the climbing test, a horrible mistake. None of the monitors could take any more of their stupid discussions and even their own friends knew it was time to stop, but they unfortunately didn’t.

However, everything came to an ending in a rainy night, when while passing through the game cabin, Gideon caught Bailey staring at him, while carefully placing some white pieces on a board.

"Would you like to play chess?"

Gideon smiled with the prospect of finally beating Bae very easily on something, which might make him forget about his existence and leave him alone.

"I'm the master of chess," he answered.

By his side, Roderick shook his head repeatedly, getting a hold of his arm as the boy prepared to sit on the empty stool to start playing.

"Better not."

"Relax,” Gideon said, giving him a reassuring smile, “it is just chess."

And yes, it in fact was just a silly board game, but which ended up with Gideon and Bae on the floor, trying to hit the other with punches and kicks. It got the camp’s director very angry and he sent the two of them to the solitary cabin, as soon as a couple of monitors brought them to him, explaining what had happened and how it hadn’t been the first time the boys fought.

That was how they ended up there, one sat in each bed of the small cabin, frowns on their faces and bags laying forgotten aside. It was still pretty earlier for them to sleep and they had lost dinner with their fight, which meant both of them were hungry and had only a few snacks to entertain themselves for the night – and God knew how much time they would have to be locked there.

"This is your fault,” Gideon accused. “If you haven't cheated on the game, we'd still be in our own cabins."

Bae made a grimace, looking away from him.

"I'm not talking to you."

"Oh, fine," the other boy grumbled. "Will you be a big baby and just sit on the corner, crying? Then do it."

In the next couple of seconds, a thunder sounded loud outside the windows, that were set above Gideon’s bed, making him jump, startled. Bae adverted his gaze to him, raising an eyebrow at his reaction.

"Are you afraid of storms?"

"No,” Gideon quickly shook his head, “of course not."

It was clear in his wide eyes that it was a lie, but Gideon wasn’t going to look weak and afraid in front of Bailey. Not when they had spent the last couple of days lost in pointless arguments. However, if he was home and a storm like this hit the city, Gideon would rush to his mother’s side, asking her to tell him a story capable of distracting him of this silly fear.

"You can sit here, away from the window if you want, I won't mind," Bae continued, as if he hadn’t heard a word the other boy said, tapping the empty space beside him on the bed. "My father says we should be better than our enemies."

"I'm not your enemy," Gideon replied with a roll of his eyes, but also reached for his bag, taking a paper bag from there before he went to sit by Bailey’s side too fast for someone who had just rejected it. "But, well, my mother says we should always share chocolate."

Opening the paper bag, he took a bar from there and broke a piece of it, offering the black sweet to Bae, who accepted it with a tiny smile, taking a bit, of a flavour he didn’t yet know, as it was only fabricated in the UK.

"Then she is smart," he concluded. "I like to think my mom is smart too."

"What? You don't know it?"

Bailey shook his head, momentarily wondering if he should be sincere with Gideon or not, but deciding to do it anyway, because he wasn’t much of a funny guy when the thunders were still resounding outside the cabin.

"My papa doesn't even talk about her," he said with a shrug.

"Interesting," Gideon murmured, taking his time to eat another piece of chocolate before he continued. "My mom doesn't talk about my dad either. The only thing I know from him is his face. I saw it on a ragged picture I stole from my mom's diary some years ago."

"How does he look like?"

Gideon shrugged. The memory of the photograph seemed quite blurry now, when he needed it, but he didn’t really know if that was relevant, after all, he probably would never get to know that man.

"Brown hair grown just like yours, brown eyes like mine. And he was wearing a suit."

"How does your mom look like?"

"Seriously, Bailey?" Gideon inquired, harshly. "Can you stop making weird questions?"

"No, no, no. Just answer it."

A deep sigh left the boy, however talking with Bae was distracting him from the storm, so he decided it would be better than just curling himself in a corner, shrinking every single time a thunder exploded out these.

"She is very short, has brown curled hair, blue eyes and she is always smiling."

Something seemed to click inside Bailey’s mind.

"Do you have your picture here?" He asked. "The one with your dad?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Go get it."

Bae slid from the bed to kneel beside his bag and opened the zipper, taking some clothes and shoes from inside there as Gideon narrowed his eyes at him in confusion before going to his own bag and taking the photo. He sat back on Bailey’s bed and waited for him to come with a picture in his hands, which made him gasp, because he recognised the woman in there, wearing a lacy yellow dress.

"This is my mom," Gideon said, perplex.

A smile filled Bailey’s lips as he pointed at the photograph in the other boy’s hand, before bringing his own close, matching the ragged parts to form a complete picture which showed a couple smiling at each other with shiny eyes, hands wrapped above a table.

"Well, this is papa."

"Bae… We are brothers."

"Twin brothers."

That was the beginning of a friendship nobody could have ever imagined. Gideon and Bae were inseparable, even after they were released from the solitary, and it was when the camping days were nearly over that they made a plan. Bailey would go to London to meet their mother Belle, while Gideon would travel to the vineyard in his place, so he could get to know their father, Adam.

Of course, it wasn’t a perfect plan, they needed to learn everything about each other’s life in a couple of weeks, change their styles and clothes, get the other’s accent and try to think of a way to make their parents exchange them again, when they already had their adventures. And maybe, convince them to make a new arrangement, so both boys could grow-up, knowing both parents.

But that they could think about later, so they focused on the needed for the moment: getting Bailey, Gideon’s haircut and making sure they could act like the other. So, when the day came and the camp ended, the brothers prepared themselves for one last time.

"Come on, do it again," Gideon demanded.

"Max is our butler, mom writes books, we live in a big house in London with grandpa Moe," Bae recited proudly. "Your turn."

"It is just us and Helga at a vineyard."

"Great you're ready."

Gideon eyed Helga Potts’ truck and leaned on to hug his brother.

"Call me, will you?"

"Sure," he guaranteed.

* * *

 

Bailey was eager to be in another country. He had never before left the United States, as his father thought it was safer for him to stay in the vineyard most time and usually only took him to places near there, where they could go with their car, without needing to take an airplane, which made the experience a little bit terrifying to him, but with Maxwell Dove talking unstoppably by his side, it was difficult to stay afraid for much time.

Isabelle French’s house was beautiful, painted in a soft tone of pastel blue, that made everything look calmer and not even the rain was able to kill his mood. He was too happy and excited and almost jumped out of the car when they stopped in front of the property, rushing inside and looking around, unsure of where to go.

"Mom?"

"Hey boy,” he heard a deep voice saying from beside him, “we've missed you!"

His eyes followed up the big frame that was his maternal grandfather, Moe. Gideon had said he was a huge man, but Bae had only known small people, so he looked quite like a giant to him.

"Whoa, you're taller than I expected."

"What?"

"Never mind. Where is mom?"

"Upstairs."

Nodding with a smile, Bailey left Moe behind, climbing up the stairs like a bouncing monkey until he saw an opened door, which appeared to lead to some kind of office, where a woman was sat by a desk, a laptop opened in front of her.

"Mom!"

She turned around, smiling brilliantly at him as she stood up, embracing him in a hug before she started to fill his cheeks with kisses.

"Oh, Gid," Belle exclaimed. "I was dying to see you, sweetheart."

"Me too," Bailey answered.

The smile didn’t leave his lips. It was good to have a mother.

* * *

 

Gideon entered the vineyard like one entered dark mysterious woods, peeking a look inside the living room, feeling a little bit unsure. Now that he was there, he didn’t know if it was really a good plan to pretend being his brother, however as soon as he heard steps echoing, his heart felt lighter and he adverted his gaze to the door from where the sound came, seeing Adam Gold coming from the hallway, rolling the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows.

"Bae!"

"Papa?"

Gideon couldn’t believe he was seeing his father. Eleven years and he had only seemed to be one of those ghosts no one can ever spot. He ran towards him, throwing his arms around the man’s waist and making him chuckle.

"Hello, my boy," Adam said, laughing. "Tight hugs, huh?"

"I feel I haven't seen you in a lifetime."

"No more camping then, I guess."

Departing from him, Gideon offered his father a sweet grin.

"No, I like camping too."

"Alright," Gold smirked, placing both hands on his shoulders and guiding him through the corridors, to another room of the house. "Helga made cookies for you."

The information only got him even more happier. He just hoped Bailey was a fan of chocolate chip cookies too, because he surely couldn’t take if those were cinnamon ones.


	3. Swapping Realities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys get to know their parents a little.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I had this chapter finished ever since Saturday night, but I only managed to take a second look at it yesterday, made the needed changes and now it is here. I promise the next one will only take a week to be posted. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

Bailey had spent a full weekend discovering Gideon’s life, before he had the chance of doing something new and exciting. Everything was new to him and not only Gideon's bedroom, but all the rooms in his mother's house had lots of interesting things in them. There was a library full of different genres of books in which he constantly found his mother at, his grandfather and the butler, Max were always sharing talk that were way too difficult for him to understand and when he watched TV, he heard people speaking with that same deep accent Gideon had thought him. Of course, Bae wasn't an expert at playing the British boy and more than a couple of times, Belle and the others made some jokes about how he had gotten himself sounding American after just a while at the camp. He had laughed every time they did, but had also felt really afraid they might find out he wasn't Gideon at all.

But even if he was caught, it would have been worth it. He had always looked at the crumpled photograph his father had, trying to imagine how was his mom, if she would be kind or exigent, if she cooked nice things and if she would smile at him the same way she smiled in the picture. During the short time he spent in London, he discovered Belle was one of the best people in the world. She was sweet, gentle, intelligent, always willing to be around him and sharing the brightest smiles, but she didn’t cook so well, which he didn’t thought to be a problem.

Belle was just who he ever wanted her to be and he was more than happy to spend some time with her, although Bae was also pretty aware it would have to end at some point.

He didn't know what might happen in the future, but he would miss his mom like crazy now that he knew her. Bailey wished they could end up working things out, so he could have both his papa - who he loved too much - and his mother with him, but for now that was all he had and Bae was relishing in enjoying his time with Belle.

On Monday morning, he had breakfast with grandpa Moe, who was reading the newspaper aloud for him and making comments about many subjects. He had tea with milk - something Bailey would've never thought could work before that day - and ate a toast, then he went back to his room to prepare himself for the day. Bae had just finished changing when Belle appeared by the doorway.

"Hey, sweetheart," she said, giving him a soft smile. "I'm going to stop by my editor's office and then maybe get some food. Do you want to come?"

"Sure."

Bailey had no idea where they were going, because he didn't know her editor's office and basically anything in that town aside from their house, but he wouldn't miss a second with his mother that he could get, so he grabbed a coat and took her hand, following Belle downstairs. They got out of the house and she only locked the door, before gesticulating to the end of the street.

"Come on," she called him. "We better rush before it starts raining."

Bailey furrowed, glancing at the black car parked outside their house, the same one in which Maxwell had brought him there. For a moment he wondered if she was really considering them to walk wherever she planned to go.

"We are not using the car?"

"We never use the car, Gideon," Belle answered with an amused look on her face. "And I've always thought you liked the tube."

No, he didn’t, because he never before, used those British tubes. Actually, Bae had never been inside a train in his entire life. His father had always chosen to use his car whenever he went and even when they were travelling, he would rent one, so they would have comfort and not need to worry about using public transport.

He had seen the red buses around town when Max was driving him home that first day and he thought they were pretty cool and very different from the yellow ones which took him to school every day for the past few years, but he hadn’t see any tubes and it got him a bit uncertain. But Bailey couldn’t show it to his mother, of course, because he was supposed to be Gideon and _he_ was used to all of those things.

"Oh, yeah, I do,” he said, faking a smile for her. “I just thought we could do something different for a change."

"Do you want a change?" Belle queried. "Because I think I can show you something new and exciting."

Bailey’s eyes got wide, already anticipating whatever his mother might have to show him, because after all he was there to discover a whole new world and he wouldn’t let any uncertainty stop him.

"Yeah? What is it?"

"You'll find out in the office," she replied with a wink.

Nodding, he accepted when she offered her hand to him again, leading the boy through a beautiful street, full of houses which were very similar to each other, like colourful replicas that became white replicas and them bricked ones. It was funny to see and, when made their way downstairs to find the tube, Bae was impressed with the amount of people waiting for it.

Belle got a hold on his hand all the time and they took a red bus after they went out of the tube station. Bailey insisted in sitting on the upper floor – because in America no busses had one – and he watched the city pass through them as they were driven to the editor’s office.

_The Bookish Mermaid_ was apparently a famous publishing company in London and Belle told him how proud Ariel – the editor – seemed to be on the phone the last time they talked, when she announced the very first copy of her new book was being impressed and they must reinforce their publicity over it. Bae nodded the whole time, feeling proud of his mom too, but not quite knowing what to say.

She took him to a mirrored building and they ended up in a large room where the parts of the book were separated on a table, each chapter clipped together and settled around the cover, which Belle took on her hands and brought closer for him to see.

"So, what do you think?"

The background was painted in a beautiful tone of mint-green, a touristic bus was draw on the middle with some popular European points behind it, the title “Beautiful Travelling Days” glowing in golden letters.

"It is beautiful, mom," Bae praised. "I like the colours."

"I'm glad you do," Belle smiled, pulling the cover down and picking the opening page to show him. "This one has a dedication to you, for how you inspired me to start writing it when we were in Rome."

Taking a look at it, Bailey read the words: “To my beloved son, Gideon. Thank you for being my everything, my inspiration and my little partner in adventures. May life take us to many other amazing places. I’ll always love you.” Bae swallowed her, blinking away the tears that appeared in his eyes, because he was certainly not the one for who this book was being dedicated to.

He had never travelled anywhere with his mother; he had no idea of what might have happened in Rome that made her want to write this and he was never her everything. Bae had to face right now the fact that in the middle of his parents’ arguments or whatever have happened between them in the past, he and his brother had suffered the consequences and in the same way he never knew Belle’s love, Gideon never knew their father’s.

It was unfair and it hurt. More now than at any other circumstance.

"Oh," he finally managed to mumble. "Thank you."

After that, Bailey got to meet Ariel, who apparently already knew his brother for a long time and who filled both his cheeks with kisses as she cheerfully told his mother he only got cuter with each passing day. He concluded she was a nice person, but he’d rather stay away from her kisses, so we wouldn’t have all that work to clean the lipstick marks she left on his cheeks.

When they left the office, Belle proposed they’d stop by her favourite pub to have a meal before taking the train back home. Bae agreed, because he was really hungry, but he didn’t really spoke much thing the whole way there. It was only when they were already eating that his mother appeared to start noticing something was wrong.

"Are you alright, Gid?" Belle asked with concern. "You seem a bit sad."

"No,” he shook his head, “I'm just enjoying my fish."

She lifted an eyebrow at him, glancing down at his plate and then back at his face.

"You barely ate it,"

"The chips are better," Bailey shrugged.

"Fine. Let's pretend I believe you."

He continued to eat in silence and she continued to watch him attentively as Bae considered how much time they would be able to keep up with this farce.

* * *

 

Gideon had pulled the duvet over his face, groaning in frustration with the light coming over his window as Helga opened the curtains. The worse way to start a day.

"Bailey," she called, taking the covers away from him. "Wake up, boy, your breakfast won't wait forever and I won't allow you to eat after I start preparing lunch."

He made a whiny sound, hiding his eyes from the light with the use of a pillow. Usually, he was awakened by his mother, Max or even his grandfather Moe, but none of them would ever disturb him this way, mainly not so early, because he took a look at the clock on the nightstand and found out he’d only be up at this time if it was school time.         

"Don't be so cruel, Helga. It's seven in the morning," Gideon complained. "Nobody wakes up at seven without having to."

A frown appeared on the housekeeper’s face.

"You do," she said, slightly confused. "You've always been up around six by your own will."

_Bailey_ , he though angrily, wishing his brother could be a bit normal at least and not enjoy things like orange marmalade sandwiches or waking up as soon as the sun rose.

"I hate myself then," he grumbled, forcing himself to slip of the bed and change his pyjamas for jeans and a shirt, before following Helga downstairs.

There was already a big table full of food waiting for him and he thought at least it was a good point in waking up so early. He took a seat and selected some things, placing them on his plate before he started to eat. Gideon had to admit, Helga’s food was the best one he ever tried and he said that after going to many different restaurants in London.

"Bae," he heard his father calling, coming from the staircase with a big smile on his lips. "I thought we should go on a ride today."

"Mm, yeah," the boy immediately answered, but a second later, he furrowed looking up at his father with a startled expression. "Wait what?"

"Go on a ride," Gold repeated. "With the horses."

_Horses_. He had never seen a horse in real life, only in pictures or on the TV, so how was he supposed to ride one? But Gideon couldn’t simply deny, because Bae wouldn’t do it and if he did, then his father would notice something was wrong.

"Oh," he murmured. "Well, right. _Of course._ I would love to."

Adam chuckled at his strange behaviour.

"Great, get ready then, I'll wait for you in the stables."

Gideon swallowed hard, but nodded, finishing his breakfast before he went outside, looking around a little bit lost, because he had no idea where the stables were set. He found them after a couple of failed tries and his father was already waiting for him outside, holding the reins of two beautiful brown animals.

The boy took a mesmerized look at them, hesitantly petting one and feeling grateful for it not doing anything to scare him. Actually, the horse bent down his head, to allow Gideon to pet between his ears.

"Can you help me climb up?" He asked Adam.

"Sure, but you've always done it yourself."

"I'm just...” he started, unsure of what to say. “Not feeling confident today."

Gold didn’t question him, only helped the boy to climb up the horse and smiled when he was settled there, getting up on his own and gesticulation for Gideon to follow him. He didn’t know how to do it, of course, because he had never ridden a horse before, but Gideon tried to copy his father’s movements the best he could and, in a couple of minutes he felt as if he had spent a lifetime doing it.

It was such a natural thing and being up there with the wind passing through him, made Gideon feel some kind of adrenaline he had never experimented; it was lighter than being in a rollercoaster but way more pleasurable. When his father stopped - and he eventually managed to – they were in a high place from which you could see the entire vineyard and looking down there, Gideon for the first time considered waking up early really worth it.

"Whoa," he breathed. "I forgot how beautiful this view is."

"Break-taking, huh?" Gold smiled. "Bae, I want to talk to you about something."

"What is it?"

Adam looked down at his reins, seeming a bit nervous and he surely didn’t like the sound of that, when mixed with this picture of him.

"Do you remember that journalist, Zelena Mills, who came here to write about the vineyard?"

Bailey had yes talked about her, saying how inconvenient that woman always had been and how he hoped she was gone when he came back home, but apparently their father hadn’t managed to free himself from her yet.

"Uh, yeah, I guess I do," Gideon agreed. "What about her?"

"Can I ask you what do you think about her first?"

"Redhead, right? I think red hair is cool. Why are you asking?"

Gold rolled his eyes. Usually Bae wouldn’t be so sassy, but this wasn’t Bailey and Gideon sometimes forgot that a part of playing his brother’s role was acting like him and not just interpreting his American accent.

"Bae, I'm engaged with her."

"Engaged?" Gideon’s eyes got wide. "Are you mad? You'll ruin everything!"

A frown appeared on his father’s face, but Gideon couldn’t give him time to explain things, because tears were filling his eyes and he needed to get out of there, so he tapped a foot against his horse and it started to run back to the stables.

"Bailey," Gold yelled. "Bae, come back."

But he didn’t answer, nor listened to that. Gideon left the horse on an empty lane in the stable and then rushed to the house, stumbling with someone at the entryway and looking up to see it was Zelena.

"Hello, pretty boy. Is your father with you? He promised we would all have lunch together."

"Oh, cool," he murmured, wiping the corners of his eyes. "I'll just change first."

Without looking at her again, he made his way to the kitchen, finding Mrs. Potts by the oven, mixing something in a huge pan while she murmured a song for herself.

"Helga," the boy called. "Helga!"

"What is it? Did you fall from that horse again?"

"No," he shook his head, allowing a tear to ran down his cheek. "Papa said he will marry that weird woman."

"Oh," was her only answer.

His eyes bulged at the realisation it wasn’t a surprise for her.

"You knew!"

Helga turned off the oven and cupped his cheek, giving him a look full of love and understanding but which didn’t erase how betrayed he felt for her not warning him about it.

"Yes. I'm sorry, Bae, but your father wanted to tell you this, himself. I wasn't allowed to say anything."

"Do you have a phone?"

Her eyebrows narrowed at the question.

"In the same place as always," she answered, pointing at his father’s study.

Taking a deep breath, he nodded and walked towards it, slamming the door shut behind him as he took a seat on the huge armchair in front of his desk, taking the phone and typing the number he remembered by heart. It took a while, but finally his brother picked-up with a murmur.

"Bailey, we have a huge problem," Gideon exclaimed. "Like, really, really huge!"

"You weren't supposed to call, stupid,” Bae replied, angrily. “What if it was mom who picked the phone? Or grandpa?"

"I'm seriously talking about a huge problem; can we focus on that?" he asked which made Bailey shut up. "Papa is going to get married!"

"What?" the other boy inquired in disbelief. "No way! To who?"

"Zelena Mills, that silly journalist you mentioned at the camp."

"He must be mad," Bae complained.

"That's what I thought," Gideon sighed. "What are we going to do, Bae?"

"I don't know but we need a plan," there was a moment of silence and Gideon could almost hear him holding onto a breath. "Oh, I think I'll have to talk to you later."

"No, Bailey," he protested. "Bailey!"

But the call had already been ended.

* * *

 

Back in London, Bae set the phone back in place, looking up at Moe with a fake smile, praying he wouldn’t make any questions about this call, or look at the IP number.

"Grandpa, hey," Bailey greeted him. "I was talking to a friend from the camp... Gus."

"Really?" Moe queried.

"Yeah, of course. Gus is fun and now I need to go over there to... Write Gus a letter."

Moe looked from him to the phone with a puzzled look on his face.

"You just talked to him."

"We have a lot to talk about!"

With that, the boy disappeared in the staircase, trying to think about a decent plan that could separate his father from Zelena Mills.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I've done a poll with the options of stories I should start writing after I finish The Parent Trap and Bittersweet, so if you want to vote, take a look at the plots on my tumblr and then follow with the second link.  
> http://imgilmoregirl.tumblr.com/post/170609959382/what-do-you-want-to-read  
> https://www.poll-maker.com/poll1877605xeD384449-53  
> As always thank you all for reading!


	4. The Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gideon have a little chat with Zelena.  
> Meanwhile Bae works on their plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter looked really huge so I slipt it in two, and this fic will end with six instead of five.

Zelena seemed to have permanently moved to the vineyard. Along the next couple of weeks, Gideon saw her every single day, wandering around like she owned the place, always smiling widely – but looking at him with annoyance when his father was not around. He couldn’t understand how Adam could possibly love someone like her, but he suspected, by how uncomfortable he always seemed when that woman was near that it might not be the case.

Gideon also discovered Baden wasn’t much of a reader. He had looked for books in his bedroom, but only found some copies of those children series he had already read a thousand times. The boy ended up to find some distraction on his father’s study, where there were some cool titles that could help him pass the time while he waited for Bailey’s next e-mail.

They had been writing for each other daily, but rare were the occasions his father was not around the house – and mainly around the study – for him to be able to turn on his computer and read his brother’s latest message. But Gideon always managed to answer him, even if with a little bit of delay.

It was on a Thursday, that the perfect opportunity to put their plan to action appeared. Zelena was sat at the backyard, being served by Helga, who apparently couldn’t stand her more than Gideon did, when Adam’s car appeared, being parked in the front of the house before he got out, leaving his laptop bag on the couch as he made his way to his fiancée.

“Hello, my pretty,” she said, when she saw him, pulling her sunglasses up and receiving the kiss Adam pressed to her lips. “I love when you’re in these suits.”

She petted his suit jacket with a wicked grin on her lips, making Helga grimace and leave the yard, going back to the kitchen. Gideon left his book aside, walking to where they were, pulling an innocent smile on his lips.

“Hey, papa, I thought we could go on a ride,” he proposed.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Bae,” Adam started. “I actually need to work on something, but you could take Zelena with you. We are going to spend the weekend at the Storybook Resort, so we’ll meet her parents before the wedding and I think this would be the perfect opportunity for you two to get to know each other a little better.”

He smiled at them and made his way to the study, but Gideon could only face Zelena with a smirk playing on his lips. She never left the main house when she was there and he assumed she didn’t like animals or even vegetation. And her high heels wouldn’t help much climbing up a horse, so it might yes be fun, after all.

“Come on, _Zel_ ,” he said, cheerfully. “You can get the white horse if you want to.”

“Ah, I don’t,” she shook her head. “And let’s not play this game. I know you doesn’t like me and I don’t like you too. There is no need and spending more time with each other than we need.”

“Well,” Gideon started. “If we are being this sincere with each other, then I’d like to say you better not get your hopes up, because you’re not marrying my dad.”

“Bailey, Bailey,” Zelena laughed. “Let’s see about that. Just don’t lock yourself crying inside your room when I’m ruling this place.”

He rolled his eyes at her and went back to the house, where waited impatiently for his father to finish his work so he could enter the study and write Bailey a message.

* * *

 

Belle had always kept a computer with a huge screen in her library and Bae had been as careful as he could when sneaking inside there to use it. That night he sat by the desk, grabbed some paper and a pen and copied the address and phone Gideon had sent, grinning to himself at the prospect of having their parents at the same place and at the same time. Of course, he didn’t yet know who to convince his mother to go to a resort in America when she was so busy with her newest book being published.

Bailey need to start to think about something, otherwise they would never get a reservation in time. He opened the resort’s website and took a look at it, finding the place to be rather nice, it had large bedrooms, a huge pool, a restaurant and a bar. The boy was just scrolling over the end of the page when the library’s door was opened and he jumped in place, closing his eyes momentarily, fearing the reaction of whoever caught him.

“Are you planning a trip, boy?” Moe French asked.

“Grandpa… I…” Bae took a deep breath and turned around to face him. “Yes.”

A deep laugh came from him.

“Don’t you think you’re getting way too adventurous, Gideon?”

 _That’s it_ , he thought. He needed help and he wasn’t pretty sure he wasn’t going to be able to convince his mother take a weekend away by his own and without any reason for it. Maybe grandpa Moe could do something about it.

“I’m not Gideon,” he confessed.

“Bailey?”

The boy nodded. He thought maybe Moe would yell at him, ask where the real Gideon was and what the hell he was doing in their house, pretending to be his brother, but all he did, was to pull Bae into a tight hug.

“Oh, my dear, I never thought I would ever get to know you, since my daughter made that stupid deal with her ex-husband.”

“Very stupid,” Bae agreed.

He let himself be hugged by his grandfather for a while more until he departed from him and pointed at the computer’s screen, where the resort’s website was still opened, showing the pools.

“What does this trip have to do with you being here?”

“Gideon will be there,” he explained. “We thought it would be a nice occasion to have a family reunion.”

Moe arched an eyebrow at him.

“A family reunion, huh? I think I can help with it.”

Bailey almost squealed with happiness. Gideon had said their grandfather wasn’t their father’s greatest fan, but whatever was making him agree with this was more than enough for now.

* * *

 

Grandpa Moe proved himself to be really helpful and only a couple of days later, they had everything ready to take a flighty and go to the resort. Bae had emailed Gideon about that and his brother seemed very excited in his message, which also got him anxious, because a lot could happen during that weekend. But Bailey needed to confess he was a little bit worried too, afraid his mom would stop being all nice and kind with him once she learned he wasn't Gideon, because after all she had chosen to stay with one of them and not with the other.

It caused him to cry at the night prior of their trip and he took a long time to drag himself off the bed and get dressed, because he was really uncertain and felt like needing a reassurance of what he was doing was right, so he slowly, hesitantly, walked to his mother's bedroom, to find her finishing packing some last minute things. When Belle glance up at him, a huge smile appeared on her petal lips.

"There you are," she said in a very lovely tone of voice. "I was wondering if I would have to leave you behind and you would lose all the fun grandpa is promising with this trip."

Bailey's expression didn't chance, it was still blank and he still clutched at the stuffed bunny he had stolen from his brother's bedroom. He swallowed hard, taking a step into her direction and blinking his tears away.

"Mommy," the boy started, "there is something I need to tell you."

Closing her bag, Belle, walked towards him, kneeling in front of Bailey and cupping his cheek as she pulled his hair away from his brow. For a moment Bae wondered if she would've liked his previous style, more alike the one his father used to wear.

"Gid, you know you share anything with me."

He took a deep breath, hold onto that amazing motherly expression she had and decided it was time for the truth.

"I'm afraid I'm not Gideon."

The mother blinked, stupefied and pulled her hands away from him, just as Bailey had been expecting her to do, which made his heart race painfully.

"What?"

"I'm not Gideon," he repeated in a lower voice. "I'm Bailey."

Belle gasped, moving to seat on the chaise near them as if she couldn't trust her legs to keep her stead the way she was before. Her fingers reached to trace his face gently and tears started to shine in her eyes.

"My Bailey," she whispered. "But if you're Bae, so where is Gideon?"

"The vineyard, with our father, Adam Gold," Bailey explained. "That's why we are going to the resort. He is there. Both of them are."

"Oh my God," Belle breathed.

She looked so shocked, about to break down in tears that Bae thought she might not be prepared for any of this. Maybe they did the wrong thing. Maybe he should have stayed home. But Bailey couldn't regret coming all the way to London just to meet his mother, even if not for long.

"Mom, I'm sorry," he sniffled. "I met Gideon at the summer camp, we become friend, we found out the truth and... I wanted to meet you, just as Gideon wanted to meet papa."

"Oh, babe," Belle murmured, pulling him into a tight hug, allowing the tears to finally fall down her eyes.

"I love you," Bae said, "I didn't want to upset you by swapping places with Gideon, but now that I know you, I love you so much that I don't want to let go. I have always wondered why you left me."

Pulling away from him, Belle cupped his cheeks. Her hands were shaking and her lower lip trembled very slightly, a whole torrent of emotions crossing her face in a split second. She felt everything and anything at that moment as she looked deep into the brown eyes of the boy she left behind all those years ago, when he was no more than a wailing infant.

"I didn't want to," she confessed, "but your father and I agreed it was for the best."

"It wasn't," Bailey whined. "Mom, you and dad need to learn how to make better deals, because this one is horrible."

"Agreed. We are idiots and I'm sorry that I left you, Bae, but that doesn't mean I don't love you. I've spent years thinking about you, hoping you would be happy and healthy."

"I am," Bae confirmed. "But I wished you were there for me."

He threw his arms around her again, sobbing as his mother clutched him, whispering sweet words to his ear, assuring him she had always loved him and always would. It was only later that Bae remembered they were supposed to be heading to the airport and pulled away from her.

"Mom, are we still going to the resort?"

"Yeah," Belle answered, wiping the corners of her eyes. "I need to get Gideon back and have a little talk with your father. Guess once you two met and we met the two of you, there is no going back. We need a new arrengement."

Bailey's heart got filled with hope and he smiled widely at her.

"So, you are not giving me up again?"

"Of course, not," she assured him. "I want to have my two boys with me and I will fight for it. I should have never stopped fighting for you."

Pressing a long kiss to her cheek Bae nodded. They had done the right thing after all and now that their mother was willing to spend some time with both of them, they just got to make this meeting with their father remarkable so, maybe they wouldn't need to be switching countries all the time.

"Should we go meet Gideon and papa, then?"

"Yes, babe," Belle agreed. "There we go."


	5. Both of Us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Belle and Gold meet at the resort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the delay with this chapter, but we are almost reaching the end and it got really huge. I hope it is worth the waiting, because I loved writing this one. And, oh, forgive my terrible French, this chapter contains only one phrase in this language, but I know I'm not the best at it.

Zelena was really cheerful during the whole trip to the resort, her bubbly happiness getting Gideon more frustrated at each passing second. He was sat on the backseat with Helga, trying to cope with the fact that his dad’s girlfriend was singing out loud, completely out of tune and wondering why someone would leave his sweet mom, to marry someone like her. It was pretty clear for him that Zelena didn’t love his father at all, but either he was too blind to see it or he actually believed he couldn’t find someone better, which was clearly madness.

He was hoping his mom would be wearing one of her most beautiful dresses when they finally met her at the resort. Maybe that tight light-blue one she wore for her last autograph section. It looked really pretty on her and he hoped his dad felt out of breath when he got a sight of her. Things would be a lot easier if he just realized Zelena wasn’t his type, but Belle was. Then, they could hopefully be together like a family.

However, he still had a lot to wait and some hours in the car were included. About noon, Zelena started to complain that she was hungry and her nutritionist had recommended she ate at each three hours. It took a long while for his father to find a restaurant that pleased her – as she didn’t eat any kind of junk food – but they finally made it there, and Gideon got out of the car with a grumpy face, already knowing he probably wouldn’t find anything he liked to eat in that restaurant.

"You'll love mom and dad, they are as fun as me," he heard Zelena saying to papa, one arm hooked around his.

_"Je vais les détester,"_  Gideon murmured under his breath.

By his side, Helga Potts almost jumped, startled, when she heard those words leaving his mouth, because that was the last thing she would ever expect to hear from Bailey, who rejected all of his father’s efforts of trying to teach him a second language.

"Did you just speak in French?"

"No,” Gideon immediately denied, his cheeks blushing with the lie, “of course not,"

"You did," Helga insisted. "And you have rejected all of the orange marmalade sandwiches I've made for you."

He shrunk, knowing there was no way he could keep hiding his identity from Ms. Potts now. She knew his brother very well and she wasn’t going to be fooled by his stupid excuses, which only made him fear what could happen now, because if she told his father about it, then everything would be lost.

"Nonsense," Gideon shook his head in a last attempt to make her leave it aside.

But Helga was a stubborn woman with a level zero of tolerance for lies – in Bae’s own words – so now that she was sure there was something wrong with him, her mind wouldn’t stop working until she found out exactly what it was. And by the shocked look on her face, he could tell it wouldn’t be long.

"You're not Bailey at all, are you?” Helga asked in awe. “You're Gideon."

He shrunk but nodded positively. The fear of the rejection, got Gideon’s heart beating faster as he stared down at the floor, he was not Bailey and these people didn’t really know him and he was pretty afraid they were going to be mad once all of them knew that he wasn’t Bae.

"Please, don't tell papa," Gideon begged.

Ms. Potts sighed, but she wasn’t really planning on doing this. She had seen both babies being born and she wanted them to have had the life they should’ve more than anyone. That just didn’t erase the fact that she got immediately preoccupied with Bae, because after all, she had watched him grow and if he wasn’t the one with her, then it meant he needed to be found.

"Where is Bailey?"

"With mom,” Gideon explained. “They are going to meet us at the resort."

"Oh, God, Zelena is going to freak out."

A big smile spread in Gideon’s lips as she pulled him into the tightest hug he had received in a long while, smacking a kiss on his cheek.

"Yeah, but that will be fun," the boy giggled.

Then, they followed his dad and Zelena inside the restaurant.

* * *

Belle got out of the car looking around the beautiful entryway of the resort and pulling her sunglasses up to her head. The weather was really hot, very different from the poor Summer they were having in England this year, and she felt like she needed to take a good time at the pool, just relaxing before everything got weird when Adam arrived there too. She was feeling slightly dizzy from the drinks she had been taking to keep herself calm, although it hadn't helped a lot and a part of her was really glad her father had decided to stay home after all, otherwise he would be judging her right now.

She looked at Maxwell, who was taking the baggage out of the car, then back to her outfit, trying to decide whether or not she should change it for something a bit fancier. Belle wanted to look nice when she met up with Adam, and she was feeling a bit self-loathing now that they were there and she knew she could just ran on her ex-husband at any second.

"Dove, how do I look like?"

"Gorgeous, madam," the butler answered, promptly.

"Do I look gorgeous enough for my ex-husband to feel stupid for ever letting me go?"

"Absolutely," he said with a smile.

"Good."

She smiled languidly as she took a shaken step into the hallway. Bailey watched the scene with puzzlement in his small face, he did understand that his mother was nervous with all of this, but she had never seen her looking so frightened. Those wide blue eyes of hers and the way she walked with shaken legs, reminded him of when the horses saw the rabbits wandering around and shrunk as if they were a bunch of snakes.

"I'll get the bags and you take care of her," Dove said, winking at him.

Bailey nodded, following his mother, before she could manage to disappear in that amount of people in the hallway. She was apparently trying to find out where she should go until she aimed the elevator and started to walk towards it, just as the doors closed.

"So, we've got a good room, and we have a nice pool to swim..." Belle rambled, if for herself or for him, Bae didn’t know.

"Are you working for the resort's marketing?"

"I'm sorry sweetie,” she sighed, “I'm just nervous."

Oh,  _that_  he knew. Bae looked to the other side and saw his father making his check-in by the counter, with Zelena, Helga and Gideon by his side. He waved at his brother.

"Take the elevator and go to our room to have some rest,” Bailey suggested to his mother. “I'll meet you in a few minutes!"

Belle said something he couldn’t hear, as he was already making his way to meet with the other twin. They laughed as they stopped in front of each other, seeing their own face perfectly mirrored in the other brother.

"Gideon!"

"Thank God, you're here," Gideon smiled, his British accent finally coming naturally to surface after all that time pretending to be Bae. "Zelena is getting on my nerves."

Bailey took a moment to think about it before proposing: "Why don't you go say hi to mom while I distract dad?"

"Great plan, go on."

With a way bigger smile already on his lips, Gideon only heard the number of their room, before leaving Bae behind, making his way to the elevator. He was glad to be having a five-minute pause from Zelena unstoppable rambling about herself, her parents and the damned wedding, but he was really counting that the ceremony would never happen. He walked towards the indicated room and knocked on the door.

"Mom?"

"Hey sweetie," Belle said, as she opened it, her eyes narrowing when she got her first glance of him. "When did you have time to change clothes?"

But Gideon was also looking pretty confused and it had nothing to do with any outfits.

"Are you smelling like gin?"

"I may have had a glass, or two," his mother answered with a sigh, grabbing her wallet. "I'll get upstairs to drink a glass of water and just take some fresh air, before your father arrives."

Belle disappeared through the door, leaving Gideon to stare at her until he couldn’t see his mom anymore. Just a few seconds later, Dove entered in the room, bringing their baggage along and, by the look he gave him, Gideon knew he was already aware he wasn’t Bailey.

"She didn't realise I was talking with a real British accent."

"She is nervous," Dove answered.

"Yeah, I know but she can't meet dad like this," Gideon sighed.

* * *

When Belle reached for the bar, she was already feeling the beginning of a headache. She wasn't really used to drinking more than a glass of wine, so the gin had really burned quickly in her stomach, she regretted it now and knew she should get sober and in control of herself before the worse happened and she just ran on Adam Gold in one of the hallways. So, letting herself fall heavy into a seat by the counter, Belle rubbed at her eyes and took a deep breath before waving to the bartender, who walked towards her, already expecting the request.

"Water please," Belle asked miserably, her voice sounding low and slow. "Do you have ibuprofen around here?"

"Just the water, ma'am," he chuckled placing a bottle and a glass in front of her. "I'm sorry but you'll have to look for medicines at the drugstore."

The man was staring at her with an amused smirk on his lips as he was probably thinking of her as an idiot for coming to a hotel bar ask for medicines. She should have sounded really mad, but the fact that he was internally laughing at her only served to anger Belle as she opened the bottle's lid and poured some water into her glass.

"Uh, sure, I'm just a bit desperate to free myself from this hangover."

He nodded, going away and she lifted the glass up to her mouth, taking a thirsty sip and wanting to bury her head on the ground. Things were happening way too fast and she needed a break. Her jet-lag didn't help either and she was seriously considering going back to her room and taking a nap while she still could, when she heard that loud scream and had to turn her head to the other side to see the wide-eyed redhead coming to her direction.

"Oh, my goodness! You're Isabelle French!"

"Hi?"

"Zelena Mills, the biggest fan of your books in this whole world," the woman introduced herself offering Belle a handshake. " _The Bride in Gold_  just changed my life, it was the best romance I have ever read! So funny and realistic, different from all those clichés we found now-a-days."

Belle arched an eyebrow at her. She had met a lot of enthusiastic fans through her career, mainly after her second book was released and she had already made some success.  _The Bride in Gold_  was in fact a best-seller and it got her name known in all the United Kingdom, her books starting to be sold in other countries too, even translated to two or three different languages. She was proud of herself and always felt her heart warming up with happiness when she met someone that enjoyed her work.

"Thank you, it is very nice to meet people who read my crazy stuff."

"It is not crazy, it's beautiful," Zelena corrected before starting to ramble: "I've read everything you published and I'm really anxious for  _Beautiful Travelling Days,_  it seems to be a lovely a book. I'm not much of a family stuff reader, but I'm definitely buying this one."

"It is very special for me, I wrote for my son," Belle said, smiling at her.

"What a sweet thing," the redhead exclaimed. "I wish I had my books here so you could sign them for me."

It was very much expected. People always wanted autographs and she had never - not even once - refused to sign a book to fan. Her money came from them buying those copies and she would never have success if it wasn't for her readers, so she thought the least she could do for them, was to be kind and sign their books, leaving sweet messages occasionally.

"You can send them to my office, I'll sign and send back," Belle proposed, opening her bag and taking one of her visit cards from inside, which had the address of her office on  _The Bookish Mermaid_  in it. "Here, I'll be waiting for their arrival."

"Thank you so much," Zelena said, taking the card and with a bubbly smile on her face. "It was wonderful to meet you."

"Likewise."

Finishing her water, Belle made her way outside the resort to where the pools were set, taking a walk around, so she could get to know the place a bit before going back to her room and having some rest. She wasn't exactly paying attention to the strange faces gathered around and inside the pools, but with the corner of her eye, she noticed that somebody was taking a look at her - actually that someone was walking towards her through the ends of one pool. Focusing on the only suited figure in there, Belle watched with wide eyes as he stumbled and fell to the water.

She jumped in place, startled and rushed to where Gold was now pushing himself out of the pool, coughing repeatedly and spilling some water before he looked up at her as he struggled to stand on his feet, his damp clothes clutching at his body.

"Belle!"

"Adam! Are you alright?"

"Just fine," he nodded, although his hair was dripping and he needed to be dried immediately. "I wasn't expecting to see you."

A little part of her wanted to laugh at how stupid he looked right now, but the truth was that as much of a silly man he was, she needed to admit he had never looked more handsome to. The years had only had him more beautiful, the greying hair fitted him perfectly, the lines of his face were stronger, more defined and the warmth in his brow eyes could now be recognised as wisdom too. She worried at her lip, not knowing what to say, but the known voice came from behind them.

"Adam, my pretty, what happened?" Zelena Mills inquired, before her glance laid on Belle. "Oh, I see you've met my favourite author."

"Your favourite author?" Gold guffawed. "Zelena this is my ex-wife. Belle, this is my fiancée, Zelena."

"Hello again," she waved at her.

Zelena mouth fell open as she looked between the in shock, incredulously blinking as she tried to understand her fiancé's words. Belle felt her cheeks starting to burn with colour for the terribly embarrassing situation.

"You two were married? So, you're Bailey's mother?"

"And mine too," Gideon said, appearing by Zelena's side just in cue.

"Hey Zel," Bailey smiled.

The redhead looked down, glancing at each boy with eyes bulging, as if they were to jump out of her face at any second.

"Oh my God, there is two of them," she exclaimed, jumping back.

A little smirk appeared in Gold's lips. He could be soaking and looking ridiculous in front of a lot of people, but the startled look on her face was incredibly amusing to him and he could just contain the laugh coming from his throat.

"I think I've never mentioned Bailey had a twin brother, huh?" Adam queried, before bending down to face both boys, trying to get some difference between them, but apparently there was none. "Which one of you is Gideon?"

"Me, papa," one of the boys smiled. "I've switched placed with Bae at the camp."

"Smart boys, that explains a lot, like why you were stealing all of my books," he said, tapping a finger to the top of Gideon's nose. Adam gazed up at Belle, asking: "Did you know about this?"

She shook her head and he saw the unshed tears shining in her eyes, the emotion of seeing both her boys together after all this time, overwhelming her.

"I'm as shocked as you are."

* * *

Adam followed Gideon outside the resort after much insistence. Zelena was pretty mad with him both because his ex-wife was there with his other son, who she had no idea that existed and because he had told her it was better if they slept in separate rooms that night, so he moved into his boy's where he found Gideon getting overdressed for the night and saying he should prepare himself for dinner. Gold didn't have much option and he knew they needed to have a great conversation at some point, so he ended-up agreeing with it, but now he was looking puzzled around, without knowing what to do next.

"Gideon, where are we going?" Adam asked. "It would be nice if you were just sincere about why you are copying my clothing style."

"We will go to a fancy place," Gideon shrugged.

"Oh, we will? And who said I'm paying for it?"

"You're not," Bae's voice said from behind him, "grandpa Moe is."

He looked back to see Bailey tucked into a three-piece-suit with his mother following behind. Gold had to restrain his jaw from falling at the sight of her. Belle was wearing a silver dress with a low-cut cleavage that went below knees, a shawl hanging from both her arms and her gorgeous auburn hair falling to her shoulders. She could very well be the moon, which had fallen from the skies to illuminate his night.

Swallowing hard, Gold asked: "Do you have any idea of what is happening?"

"Not even a clue," she answered, before the limo parked in front of them.

Apparently, her father had invested a great amount of money in that night, because it took the four of them to the pier and, when they slipped off the car, they found the big ship shining with colourful lights.

"Boys what is this?" Belle questioned, arching an eyebrow at their sons.

"Grandpa told me everything about the ship, it is all about the ship," Bae said, cheerfully. "So, he got it for us. Well, for today at least."

"You two are unbelievable," Adam chuckled as they made their way through the staircase. He eyed Belle, whose smile was shining as much as the lights of the ships. "I've spend quite a few years thinking your father hated me."

She giggled happily, watching the boys bouncing in front of them as they entered the ship, walking through the corridors with the kind of honest joy only children could show.

"Oh, he does hates you, but he loves those boys. He wouldn't deny anything they asked."

"Good to know," Gold sighed.

They reached for the door and it was opened by Maxwell Dove and Helga Potts, her butler and his housekeeper, both dressed as waiters with giant conspiracy smiles on their faces.

"Welcome to the ship of dreams," Dove exclaimed proudly.

"We are not inside the Titanic, Max and I do hope this one does not sink," Belle laughed.

Helga snorted, rolling her eyes. "He meant to say you will have an amazing dinner."

Belle's eyes moved to her and she didn't hesitate in throw her arms around the redhead, pulling her into a hug.

"Oh, Helga, I've missed you."

"I did too, my dear," Ms. Potts guaranteed, before pulling away, sniffling a little. "Now come on, table for two is ready,"

"Two?" Belle inquired. "We are four."

"We were four," Adam corrected, being unable to find the boys. "I'll need some champagne."

They walked towards the table settled for them in the same spot where they once took a picture, one which had been ripped apart, each one of them keeping one half of it. He pulled the chair for Belle and she settled herself there, crossing one leg over the other as he serves the drinks.

"So how is your life going?" Gold started, offering her a glass of champagne.

"Your fiancée appears to like my books," Belle shrugged.

Taking a long sip of her drink, she analysed Adam from head to toe, wondering if his hair would still feel as soft to her fingers as it had in the past. He was tracing the border of his glass with his thumb, not daring to look up at her.

"She likes... A lot of things."

"Are you nervous?"

"No," Gold said, way too fast, before taking a deep breath and correcting himself: "Aye, I haven't seen you in ages before today. You look nice."

Belle allowed a smirk to appear on her lips. She had chosen that outfit to look as beautiful as she could in the occasion, already knowing Bae and Gideon would bring them together. Of course, she also knew he was about to get married and she didn't mean to interfere in any of this, but yet, it made her feel good with herself to put some effort in a good make-up and a nice dress.

"Thank you," Belle replied. "Now, what about the vineyard?"

Gold sighed deeply. He wasn't liking the tone of this conversation because both of them were just trying to avoid the uninventable and he couldn't just keep talking with her like he would talk with some stranger.

"Will we keep on with this small talk?"

"Uh, yeah, better not."

She lifted the glass to her mouth again and Helga appeared with two little silver plates, placing them in the table.

"Tonight, we'll have green salad, lasagne and banoffee pie."

"Not really fancy, huh?" Gold mocked her.

Eyes narrowing Helga warned: "I cooked the meal and Max made the pie so you two better not complain!"

"That's wonderfully nice, Helga, thank you," Belle interfered.

Satisfied with this new answer Helga turned around on the balls of her feet and disappeared through the door, probably heading back to the kitchen.

"Alright, so no small talks, we both can agree that time has passed and from the two dreams we were, we actually got to make a life,” Belle started. "But we neglected the situation we created with the boys, and now they are somewhere in this ship probably watching us through a camera as if we were in a reality show."

Adam chuckled, but just for a second, he needed to admit that she was right about it all. What they did was wrong and they had to fix it now, one way or the other.

"We need a new solution. Do you have something in mind?"

"Honestly, Adam, everything I thought was as crazy as our first plan," the brunette sighed. "But we can't just be reckless again and go with the first thing that comes up to our minds. We grew up to, we need to act like adults."

"We were adults when we met," he said, voice low and full of regrets.

Her lips tightened in a pale line, Belle reached for his hand above the table, touching it very softly.

"But we weren't ready to play our parts, we were still young, we had dreams of our own. There was no way that marriage was going to last."

He nodded in agreement. Gold never heard of a marriage so quick and silly like there that had lasted more than a couple of years. Not even stable relationship used to last, so it was very predictable how the whole situation would end, and yet, they wanted to try.

"Yeah, now I know, but when I had you all beautiful in giggling in my arms it all felt right."

"I can get it," Belle murmured, "I thought we were meant to be."

Gold knew it probably would be best if he didn't say anything but had spent a quite long time after they parted ways with that haunting him to simply not ask when he had the chance.

"So why did you go away?"

"I was drained, freaking out," Belle said, pulling away from him and leaning back against her chair. "Nothing makes sense when you're as exhausted as we were with two babies and we weren't being the best version of us with each other too. I needed my home."

"There was a time where you said I was your home," he whispered, almost resented.

Blue eyes shining with something he didn't quite know how to interpret, Belle smiled picking up her fork and looking down at her salad as she said: "That's what people in love do."


	6. I Choose Them

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gideon and Bae go camp with Gold and Zelena

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! I'm finally back with this. So, I've splitted this chapter in two as it was getting way too big, but I shall post the final one by Sunday. Enjoy it!

The whole night was a dream for Belle, although it had been pretty awkward too, but she preferred to stick to the good side of it. She could barely sleep after they went back to the hotel, Adam dropping her and Gideon to the door of their bedroom with a little smirk in his lips as he pressed a kiss of goodnight to her cheek, making her heart race painfully in her chest. A big, big part of her wished things could have been this nice in the past while they still had a chance, but unfortunately, it hadn’t and now they had to move on.

However, trying to think like that didn’t make sleep come any easier to Belle, she stayed up, tossing and turning into bed, staring at Gideon on his own bed which her chest aching to know that once more she would have to leave her Bailey behind. She waited to hear Mr. Dove coming back, as she hadn’t found him when they were to leave, but he didn’t appear that night, only in the next morning when she had already filled her face with foundation and concealer, in order to hid the dark circles under her eyes, she saw him arriving looking as tired as her.

Belle didn’t make any questions, only packed the things she had taken from her suitcase last night and dressed herself for the day, knowing it was time to say goodbye to Bae and Adam. She pulled on a nice dress and went back to the room to wake Gideon and realised he was already gone, the bed empty and his bag opened above it. Finishing to pack, she instructed Dove to take their things to the car that was waiting for them and went downstairs to make their check-out and look for Gideon, who she suspected to be with his brother.

Surprisingly she met Adam half-way to the elevator. He was carrying a suitcase, had a black suit on – and better – his creepy, too bubbly and enthusiastic fiancée was nowhere to be seen.

“Good morning,” he said, politely, holding the door open for her.

“Good morning,” Belle replied with a giggle. “I suppose you haven’t seen our sons either.”

_Our sons_ , God, it sounded so weird and so powerful at the same time. Her whole life it had been _her son_ , never someone else’s and never more than one, she missed what their lives could have been and the remorse of not having raised Bailey was striking down hard.

“No,” Adam shook his head. “I woke up and Bae was gone.”

“Same,” she murmured.

They got out of the elevator, walking towards the counter on the main hall and making their check-outs. Gold and Belle were side by side and somehow it felt right. There weren’t any restrictions between them and it made her remember why they got married in first place and how they ended-up having those two smart twins. It always felt right when they were near each other. Worrying at her lip, Belle quickly glanced at him, thinking about the agreement they had made in the night prior.

“So, they will spend Christmas with me and Easter with you, right?”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “It will be good for all of us.”

She felt like she couldn’t agree with it, because that was the same thing they had insisted in saying when they first parted ways, each of them keeping one of their babies. That decision hadn’t been the right one and none Adam nor Belle could see it at the time, so she kept wondering if this one was going to be another huge mistake. Belle turned around a few seconds after Adam did, just to see Gideon and Bailey coming right way.

"There you are, I was going to send Dove after you," she said wait a smile.

"Which one of us?" One of the boys asked.

And then she had to admit that with them dressed equally, both with polo shirts and jeans, she didn’t know how to distinguish who was who – and even if they weren’t dressed equally, she would still find it hard to know which boy she must take to London with her. Belle snorted, frustrated.

"Gideon!"

"What?" Both of them answered with angelic smiles.

"Seriously, boys?" Adam inquired, crossing his arms. "Your mom has a flight, so no games. Come here to say goodbye, Gideon."

"You'll never know which of us is Gideon," the boy wearing a green shirt said.

Oh, she should have known it was coming. Now that they had found each other, Bae and Gid weren’t willing to lose this, both of them had grown-up as a single child until now and by a single parent, it was only fair that they got to know the rest of the family, but this was clearly not the right way to do so.

"What is the point of this?" Belle queried, eager for this to come to an end.

"Papa promised to take us to camp and we both want to go,” the one wearing blue explained, adding sweetly: “with the two of you."

So, this is what they wanted, Belle thought. Apparently, Gideon and Bae were playing the cupids, trying to get her and Gold together again, but what they didn’t know is that adults were stubborn and, when you had a very problematic past behind, you couldn’t just forget it all and start over. Not with the way they left things.

"Boys..." Adam trailed off in a weary voice.

"We promise we will tell you who we are if you two agree," they blinked eyelids at them. "Please."

Her eyes slid close. She wanted to say no. Adam said yes.

* * *

 

The trip to the vineyard was quite an awkward thing, Belle could see that Zelena wasn’t happy from the moment Adam told her he was going to camp with her favourite author and their kids, but she did no more than grimacing at him. She couldn’t deny that her own wish was to take the next flight to London, go back home and simply forget it all, but instead she was sat on the backseat of a rented car with Gideon – or maybe Bailey, at this point she wasn’t sure – slept with his head on her shoulder, while Maxwell Dove followed Gold’s own car. She wasn’t sure about how she would feel to see the vineyard again, but when the cars parked and she slipped out, taking a look at the same breath-taking view that still inspired many of her stories, she was taken by nostalgia.

Her children had been born in this very place, she had lived the love of her live in here and most of her best memories were made in the house behind her. It was overwhelming to be back. Eyes wandering to the car parked in front of theirs, she met Adam’s gaze and the world seemed to stop. Somehow, she knew they were thinking the same thing: they missed the life they never had.

She wanted to say something, anything that could break the silence and bring him to be as honest in worlds as he was in glances, but she couldn’t find the strength in herself to do so and, anyway Zelena was already getting out of the car too and she started to drag Gold inside, ending that silent moment between them. Belle sighed, gathered her things and followed Helga to the house that had once been hers.

* * *

 

"I can't believe she did this to us," Bailey exclaimed dramatically, as they walked through the woods.

They were a few steps ahead their dad and his stupid fiancée, both angry with the fact their mom had stepped back in the last minute, sending Zelena to camp with them in her place. Not even Gold seemed happy with that. They had planned lots of fun things to do together and he appeared to be pretty eager to spent four days away from that crazy woman, but now they were all stuck there with her.

"Yeah, me neither," Gideon grumbled. "How are we supposed to spend any quality time with _her?"_

He pointed back at where their father was helping Zelena to jump to the next rock in their way. Her red hair was up on a bun and she was wearing a black gym outfit with only a green top under her jacket. They had barely walked a few metres but she was already sweating like a pig.

"Mom must have gone mad," Bae mumbled, grimacing.

"She thinks we need to accept papa's choices,” Gideon answered with a shrug, taking a seat on the rocks to wait until their dad and Zelena reached them.

Bailey folded his arms, looking up at the sky and sighing.

"But he has gone mad too, no one would like to marry her!"

Gideon couldn’t agree more with this. He thought that when he was old enough for this, the last thing he would want was to marry somebody so annoying like he redhead. Her almost fake cheerful way and her controlling habits were not something most people would be willing to live with.

"Can we stop for a minute?” They heard her saying. “I'm tired and I need to eat at each three hours."

"Zelena, if we keep stopping like that we will never reach the lake," Gold explained, rather frustrated.

But she, however, wasn’t hearing at all. Zelena slipped her backpack through her shoulders and dropped it in front of herself, opening the zipper and starting to take things out.

"Come on, Adam, I just need my sweet green apple."

Another sigh left Bae. He wanted to correct her and say that green apples were hardly sweet, but he knew that all he would win with this as a look of disapproval from his papa, so he remained quiet, watching as Zelena drank half of her water bottle before taking a bit of her apple.

"Alright," Adam nodded. "Boys, we will make a quick stop."

"Again," Gideon complained in a whisper. "Uh, I hate her."

Looking at the three behind him, Bae caught the glance of something black moving in the brown trunk and reached for a plastic jar he had in his backpack, gesticulating for his brother to follow him out of their father’s sight, so they could put a little plan that was passing through his mind in action.

"Have I told you that once Zelena told dad that she is afraid of spiders?"

A wicked grin appeared in Gideon’s lips as he watched Bae imprisoning the spider inside the jar. They carefully walked back to were their father and his fiancée were and Bailey dropped the thing next to Zelena that didn’t realise it at first, but that started to scream like a little girl when she saw the spider by her side. She jumped to her feet with a loud wail, almost jumping on Gold’s arms.

"Adam!"

He rolled his eyes, insisting that as long as she didn’t come much closer, the spider wouldn’t do anything to her, but Zelena didn’t seem happy with the answer, so she grabbed her things and insisted they should keep walking and not stop again until they were by the lake, were she could get inside her tent and hide from those hideous animals. They continued to make their way until they found the beautiful lake and their dad set up the tents.

"You two better behave now that we are here,” Gold said as soon as Zelena went to a corner to spread some insect repellent in her arms and cheeks, “because otherwise I'll make sure both will be grounded when we get home."

"We are angels," Gideon said with a grin.

At night, they made up a bonfire and started to roast some sausages to put on their breads for dinner, they also had marshmallows and chocolate for dessert and the boys were happily delighted for first time in the whole day, but when Zelena got out of her tent and looked at the food, she made a disgusted face.

"Whose idea was it to bring sausage?"

"Mine, actually," Adam answered. "Don't you like it?"

She seemed to shiver at the thought of eating even a single bit of it, so she opened her bag and took her own snacks from there.

"I'm sticking to the apples, thank you."

Gideon and Bae rolled their eyes at the attitude, watching her made her way back to the tent. They spent quite a great time, hearing some good stories from their dad until Adam got too tired to keep up and send them to their own cabins to sleep, however they didn’t immediately did it. Another plan had come to their minds and, as soon as they were sure papa was sleeping, they sneaked out of their tent and went to Zelena’s.

They opened the zipper, pulling her air mattress out, dragging it to the lake and letting it float freely on the water. Only them they were able to go to sleep, but really soon the next day, Gold got out of his tent, finding the pair sat on a old tree trunk, sharing some blueberries.

"Boys, have you seen Zelena?"

"I think she felt the absence of a boat," Bae said, pointing at the lake, were her mattress was still floating.

"Oh, God,” Adam murmured, before taking off his shoes and going to the water to save her.

Zelena wasn’t awake until now, but as soon as Gold reached for her and shook her elbow, she woke up and started to scream, yelling a few bad things at him as he dragged the mattress back to land. She slipped to her feet, her pyjama pants getting soaked in the water.

"I'm done with this, Adam. I want to go home and never see them again," she shouted out at him, pointing at the boys. "Send both with the mother, I don't care, but I'm not spending another day with the little monsters."

He arched an eyebrow to her. Both Gideon and Bae shrunk at her request.

"You knew I had a child when you agreed to marry me, so Belle reappearing or not, I'll still take care of Baden."

"Oh, no. You need to make a choice, it is me or them. You're not getting both."

"Alright," Gold said coldly. "Them."

Zelena blinked as if she could barely believe what he had just said. Bae looked at his brother a sudden smile appearing in his lips, because he knew their papa would never fail them.

“What?” Zelena inquired one last time.

"I choose them."

* * *

 

They had been using Helga’s truck for the camp trip, as Gold’s Cadillac wouldn’t be able to take it and the boys came home holding their bags in the backseat, both a bit down after hearing a big speech during their way home. Adam was really angry for what they did and Zelena had chosen to take a taxi home since he returned her engagement ring to Gold. The car parked in front of their house bringing Belle and Helga outside.

"What happened?” Their mother inquired as soon as they approached her. “I thought you would stay in camp for another couple of days."

"They are grounded,” Adam explained, his accent sounding even thicker in his anger.

Gideon and Bae looked down at the ground as Helga arched an eyebrow at them, crossing her arms and giving them that look of hers that said they weren’t eating one single cookie for at least two weeks. Belle however remained only confused, looking between her children and Gold.

"Why?"

"We might have done a few bad things to Zelena," Gideon murmured. "We'll go inside and feel miserable for what we did."

Bae took his hand, dragging him to the front door as Mrs. Potts followed them. Belle walked towards Adam, helping him to pick the few things left on the truck, seeing how much his brow was narrowed. She wished she could just touch it, helping alleviate his stress, but it had been years since she touched him for more than five seconds.

"I can't believe it!"

"They were right about Zelena being the wrong woman to me,” Gold shrugged, lifting a bag, “but they need to learn to not be bad boys."

"Yeah," Belle agreed. "I'm sorry for you and Zelena."

He shook his head, clearly refusing her compassion. She needed to admit that Zelena wasn’t really his type and she couldn’t imagine him married to her. They were way too different for that.

"It is no matter," Gold assured, walking inside the house with Belle on his heels. He stopped for a second, turning around to look her in the eye when he asked: "Would you like to have dinner with me tonight? Just the two of us?"

"Why?"

Belle didn’t intend to answer him with another question but she was caught by surprise. He had just ended an engagement, so she thought he would like to have some time alone and most likely tell her to go home, instead of asking for her company.

"I want to cook and I really want us to have a proper talk."

She worried at her lip, remembering about the other dinner they had shared. It had been nice and even if it was just going to be a last contact, she wanted it, because Belle enjoyed talking to him.

"Alright, I think it will be good for us."

Gold smirked and then, disappeared on the staircase.

* * *

 

"He invited her for dinner," Bailey celebrated, entering his bedroom and jumping around.

Gideon dropped the book he had just opened to his lap, his mouth falling open as he wondered if he had heard it right. All those fail attempts of getting them together and now they spent five minutes talking on their own and they had solved the problem by themselves! Oh, now mama and papa just needed to kiss and everything would be fine.

"Are you kidding?"

"No," Bae shook his head eagerly. "There is still a chance for us!"

A smile crossed his face as he thought that maybe they never got to make it back to London, because maybe this beautiful place could be their new home.


	7. And Then, There Is Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gold makes a choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here it is the final part of this story! Thank you so much to everyone who read it and supported it and a special thanks to Moonlight91 who inspired me to write it and made this amazing cover art for me. <3

The house smelled just like it did eleven years ago, Belle noticed that night. She was located in one of the guest rooms and had enjoyed staying in there while the boys were camping, she had sometime to walk around, ride a horse, gather some inspiration and write a bit and she had also called Ariel, telling her to not produce any other copy of her next book, because she needed to make some changings in it. Ariel had not been happy with it, but she understood the situation once Belle explained everything.

But the thing was that she hadn’t truly allowed herself and notice the details in the house until now, as she finished brushing her hair and inhaled the amazing smell of food coming from down the stairs. She had chosen the carpet of every bedroom when she was around sixteen weeks pregnant and it was still the same. The paintings her father gave them as a wedding gift were still hanging on the walls of the corridor and her favourite reading chase was still set on the same place in the library as it had been when she left.

She concentrated in the sounds her high heels made as she made her way to the kitchen, trying to not let herself be taken by all the memories that seemed to be creeping out from the edge of her mind. Belle hadn’t thought about the way she used to nest herself in Gold’s arms on the biggest couch, the way she read aloud to him as he kissed her neck, attempting to distract her from this task. It seemed to have happened in another life and, as she walked towards the kitchen, seeing Gold take something from the oven she couldn’t help but to smile. She was a terrible cooker but Adam had always been a wonderful one.

He looked up at her, a tiny smirk playing in his lips as he took a pan in hands and divided some of the most amazingly looking broccoli she had ever seen in her life, it appeared to be delicious, covered by some white thing that she thought to be some kind of cheese mixed with herbs. Her mouth watered just to see it. However, Belle stood there for another awkward moment, watching him carefully serve two plates without knowing what to say and, of course, she ended-up with the wrong phrase leaving her lips.

"Have you seen Dove around?"

"Aye,” Gold answered with a chuckle, “he and Helga left half an hour ago."

Arching an eyebrow at him, Belle laughed. So that was why Dove was disappearing so much lately. She could have never imagined, even more because she knew Helga for a lifetime and she didn’t remember about seeing her dating anyone, but anyway she was a very private person.

"What?"

"I think they are kind of into each other," Adam shrugged, taking their plates to the dining room and pulling a chair to her.

Belle smiled, taking a seat and watching him pour two glasses of white wine. She wondered it had been made there in the vineyard, although she only remembered about him producing the red ones.

"Oh my God," she answered, still laughing. "I'm glad at least they are happy."

"And you are not?" Gold questioned, sitting in front of her.

The grin on her lips slowly faded. Was she? Belle didn’t know, not exactly and certainly not right now. She couldn’t hypocrite to the point of saying she didn’t have quite a wonderful house in London and she hadn’t lived amazing moments travelling around with Gideon, however she had always lacked something. The ghost of the son she left behind was always hunting her and so was everything she left behind she decided to leave Gold.

"I have a nice life to go back to but coming here brought me lots of memories," she said, simply.

"We were happy here,” Adam whispered, “at least once upon a time."

"I know," Belle nodded, worrying at her lip. She looked down at her food, feeling unable to keep going with this conversation and needing to change the subject, and their meal seemed to be a nice escape. “This salmon looks incredible.”

Gold grabbed his fork, with one hand and with the other, he lifted his glass, taking a sip of the wine before cutting a bit of the salmon. He hadn’t gone for anything fancy, but the way the fish was displayed in the plate alongside with the broccoli was appealing to anybody.

“I hope it _tastes_ incredible,” he corrected.

“Mm, yeah,” Belle said, delighted after taking her first bit, “it does.”

She had always been one for delicate foods like this and Belle needed to give Gold some credit for remembering about it. She loved the way everything tasted and, when he served them with a piece of passionfruit mousse pie – which she had no doubt Helga had prepared – Belle thought that she could go anywhere in the world, but no other dinner would be so delicious and welcoming. Differently from what happened in the boat, they did stick to small talks, because apparently none of them wanted to dive into speaking about their next goodbye.

Somehow, they ended up on the cellar, where Gold kept collective items from all kinds of sorts, wine, books, small statues and paintings. But there was one thing that immediately caught Belle’s attention: a very old typewriter. She had bought one of those some years ago, but it was not an original vintage piece, just made to look like one and just its light-blue colour denounced the fact it had been fabricated recently with the purpose of getting writers like her to feel the need of having it. But the one Gold had was an original piece and she gasped as she allowed her fingers to contour the cold metal.

“Oh, you have quite an amazing piece here,” she murmured, awestruck.

“I need to admit that I was thinking about you when I bought it,” he answered in a low voice, standing right behind her, his fingertips sliding through her arms and making her shiver. “I think once you said you wanted to challenge yourself to write a whole book using only one of those.”

Belle nodded. She couldn’t remember the last time she was this close to him, feeling her breath get caught on her throat with the proximity, but she like it more than she wanted to admit.

“I never thought you payed so much attention to the things I said.”

“I always did,” Gold murmured and she could feel his breath on her hair, “perhaps I just didn’t show it properly.”

Yes, now she thought it so. Belle could certainly remember about Gold’s adoration over her, but it seemed to fade as exhaustion hit them and with it came the stress and the utter misunderstandings between them, however now it all seemed to have happened a long time ago. She turned around to face him, tracing a finger lightly to his jawline.

“Perhaps,” Belle murmured.

She didn’t actually think about what she was doing, Belle just did. In one second, she was wondering about how handsome he looked and in the next she was pressing her lips to his. After releasing a sharp breath of surprise, Adam returned the kiss eagerly, deepening the kiss before sliding his tongue along her lower lip and that was when she pulled back.

“I’m sorry,” she said, breathing. “I shouldn’t have… It must be the wine.”

And then she was gone.

* * *

 

It was raining, just like in the night she ran away for the first time. Things didn’t feel less painful now than it did before, mainly because she had got to spent a lot of time knowing Bae and having Adam to charm her with his soft words. Back then, she was so angry with him, that she couldn’t even think straight, she just took a flight and disappeared. She just didn’t know what a fool she was being at the time.

Belle kneeled in front of Bae, brushing his hair away from his face. He was so alike his brother that one couldn’t tell who was who, just by looking at them. They had their differences which made them unique and that was why she loved each one of those boys immensely. It was too hard to say goodbye.

“I’ll see you soon, ok? I’ll call you everyday and send you postcards whenever I have to travel,” she promised. “I love you, Bailey.”

“I love you two, mom.”

He threw his arms around her neck and Belle breathed his essence, trying to memorize the smell of his shampoo and the way he felt warm and safe in her arms, but all too soon he pulled away to hug his brother and she had to rise up on her feet and look at her ex-husband as she heard Helga and Dove making silly promises of keep in touch.

“Goodbye, Adam.”

“Goodbye, Belle,” he repeated, squeezing her hand between his. “I hope you have a good flight. Call us when you arrive London, just so we know you two are fine.”

“Alright.”

Then Gideon turned too him with eyes full of tears and her heart broke as they hugged, knowing her precious boy was growing up without a father just as Bae was growing up without a mother, and it was all their fault.

“I’ll miss you, papa.”

“It won’t be long, I promise.”

After that, they left. The flight to London was quite an exhausting thing, but Belle was already expecting it, as it wasn’t the first time she spent hours in a plane, but usually she would enjoy the spare time to have some sleep or read a book and not looking outside the windows, looking at the sky and wondering if she should have been braver than that and spoke up her feelings, instead of cowardly going back home. Her son didn’t seem to be doing much better, but at least he could distract himself with a video game during the trip.

A taxi drove them home and when they arrived Moe was already expecting them outside the house and got her into a tight hug before doing the same with Gideon as Dove took their baggage from the taxi.

“Hey, young boy, missed me?”

“A lot, grandpa,” the boy answered, promptly.

“Go on inside then, I have a surprise for you.”

Without being able to contain himself – because after al he needed a good surprise to cheer him up right now – Gideon jumped inside their house, going to the living room, thinking that maybe his grandfather had gotten him the dog he had been begging to be given, but instead, he found his little clone, or better saying, his twin brother sat by the window with a book in hands.

“Bailey?” Gideon blinked. “What are you doing here?”

In that moment their mother walked inside the living room and gasped at the sight of both her boys standing in there. Bae smiled widely and rushed to hug her and receive a quick kiss on the top of his head.

“Sometimes it only takes five minutes for someone to realise the big mistake it is about to make,” Bailey said. “We couldn’t let you two go this way, so we also took a flight, but one that was way faster than yours.”

“We?” Belle inquired.

From the double doors that lead to the small dining room came Adam and he pulled away from Bae, walking towards him with eyes shining in awe. She couldn’t believe he was there, that they were both there, the two people she had been lacking in her life this whole time.

“I tried to say that night how much I still love you, but when you stepped back, I just thought it was better to let it be, until I saw you leaving again and I realised I couldn’t lose you a second time without you knowing how I feel.”

He cupped her face and all she could do was to get lost on his warm brown eyes, knowing they still belonged to each other, even after all this time.

“So, you just decided to go after me?”

“It was what I should have done right on the first time.”

This time, when their lips met, she didn’t pull away, they hold onto each other never wanting to let go, not even when they got out of breath. On the corner of the room, two boys were squealing with happiness, because their plan had really worked.

* * *

 

In the next summer Adam Gold and Belle French got married again in a bigger celebration that the very first, she moved into the vineyard with Gideon, but every now and then they still go to London to visit her father. It didn’t take long for Helga and Dove to follow the example and say “I do” for each other, they kept working together for the Golds and had a baby girl with red hair and dark eyes.

The point of this story? Love is never perfect and life has funny ways of bringing people together. In the end, you just have to make your own choices and be brave to invest in the future.


End file.
